This enormous supersonic white elephant cost British taxpayers billions of pounds and was championed by the Conservative government of the day, led by Edward Heath, the most piss poor Prime Minister of the 20th century. No one was sad when he went off on the world’s longest sulk after the Conservatives, following two election defeats in 1974, chose a new leader in 1975 – Margaret Thatcher. Little did we know.

Anyway, Concorde. The initial mistake was to suppose that future progress in air travel must necessarily involve more speed.

In fact, progress was represented by anything which carried a greater number of people more cheaply. Jumbo jets and charter flights were the way forward, whilst Concorde, in this respect, was a mammoth jump backwards.

It was, and is, a fatal flaw in the Tory mentality to equate progress with anything which makes life easier for high-powered business executives.

Foreign Secretary William Hague issued a statement in response to rumours over his relationship with former special adviser Christopher Myers (yesterday the political gossip blog Guido Fawkes, run by Paul Staines, revealed Hague and Myers shared a hotel room during the election campaign):

I feel it is necessary to issue this personal statement in response to press and internet speculation over the last ten days.

Earlier this year a Sunday newspaper began questioning whether my marriage to Ffion was in trouble, and last week another media outlet asked whether there was a statement about our supposed separation. This seemed to be linked to equally untrue speculation surrounding the appointment of Christopher Myers as a Special Adviser.

Christopher Myers has demonstrated commitment and political talent over the last eighteen months. He is easily qualified for the job he holds. Any suggestion that his appointment was due to an improper relationship between us is utterly false, as is any suggestion that I have ever been involved in a relationship with any man.

This speculation seems to stem from the fact that whilst campaigning before the election we occasionally shared twin hotel rooms. Neither of us would have done so if we had thought that it in any way meant or implied something else.

In hindsight I should have given greater consideration to what might have been made of that, but this is in itself no justification for allegations of this kind, which are untrue and deeply distressing to me, to Ffion and to Christopher.

He has now told me that, as a result of the pressure on his family from the untrue and malicious allegations made about him, he does not wish to continue in his position. It is a pity that a talented individual should feel that he needs to leave his job in this way.

Ffion and I believe that everyone has a right to a private life. However, we now feel it necessary to give some background to our marriage because we have had enough of this continued and hurtful speculation about us.

I have made no secret of the fact that Ffion and I would love to start a family. For many years this has been our goal. Sadly this has proved more difficult for us than for most couples. We have encountered many difficulties and suffered multiple miscarriages, and indeed are still grieving for the loss of a pregnancy this summer. We are aware that the stress of infertility can often strain a marriage, but in our case, thankfully, it has only brought us closer together.

It has been an immensely traumatic and painful experience but our marriage is strong and we will face whatever the future brings together.

Several years ago one Sunday paper reported that Ffion was three months pregnant, without ever checking the story with us. This made even more difficult the fact that we had only just experienced another disappointment.

We have never made this information public because of the distress it would cause to our families and would not do so now were it not for the untrue rumours circulating which repeatedly call our marriage into question. We wish everyone to know that we are very happily married.

It is very regrettable to have to make this personal statement, but we have often said to each other “if only they knew the truth…”

Yeah, yeah, whatever … but he is a shirtlifter isn’t he? And Ffion’s a beard.

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Black Dogs Defined

This is the best of me; for the rest, I ate, and drank, and slept, loved and hated, like another: my life was as the vapour and is not; but this I saw and knew; this, if anything of mine, is worth your memory.

(John Ruskin, Sesame and Lilies)

Whatever people say I am, that’s what I’m not.

(Alan Sillitoe, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning)

This is my letter to the world, that never wrote to me.

(Emily Dickinson, This is my letter to the world)

Safe upon the solid rock the ugly houses stand:
Come and see my shining palace built upon the sand!

R.A.D. Stainforth

I was born before The Beatles’ first LP and brought up in the reeking slums of Jericho. I am in love with a woman called Hazel and in love with her daughter, also called Hazel, both of whom I met at Alcoholics Anonymous.